In need of a little holiday spirit?
If You Go
Happy Holidays with the Mighty Wurlitzer
Friday, Dec. 9, 7 p.m.
Music Hall Ballroom
1241 Elm St.
Click here fro tickets and info!
It’s not too late to join the Friends of Music Hall for its annual Happy Holidays with the Mighty Wurlitzer concert in Music Hall’s beautiful and historic ballroom, with host Kyle Inskeep, from Local 12 .
Guests can enjoy the song stylings of theater organist, Mark Herman as he fills the Wurlitzer organ with spirit of the season! Herman is one of the country’s busiest theatre organists, performing in concerts and silent film presentations.
The evening also features singers from the May Festival Chorus singers. Dancers from the Otto M. Budig Cincinnati Ballet Academy will join the fun, presenting excerpts from The Nutcracker, including the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, Candy Cane Dance, and Marzipan Dance.
Once the pride of the RKO Albee Theatre, the Mighty Wurlitzer Organ has been a part of Cincinnati since 1927, when the theatre organ accompanied the showing of silent films. By the late 1960s, RKO donated the organ to the Ohio Mechanics Institute, which owned the Emery Auditorium. The Ohio Valley chapter of the American Theatre Organ Society installed the organ in the Emery Auditorium in 1977. They maintained and played the organ for movie and concert audiences for 22 years as volunteers. But when the Emery Theater closed in 1999, the Wurlitzer was placed in storage under the care of the Ohio Valley chapter.
At the turn of the last century, a proposal surfaced to place the organ in the Music Hall Ballroom. Once funding was secured, Ronald F. Wehmeier started restoration work in 2007. Through the generosity of donors and the efforts of the Friends of Music Hall, this remarkable instrument now has a permanent home in the Music Hall ballroom.
The Wurlitzer Company was founded in Cincinnati in the mid-1800s and originally created a variety of musical instruments. The company's most famous product was the pipe organ, which became known as the “Mighty Wurlitzer” – a designation which became a symbol of quality.